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Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Dave!

There's another very important member of our family I may not have talked about that much. He's a little ratty, and looks like he's seen better days, even though he's just 7 years old. His name is Dave. He's Jack's bear, right-hand-man and all around best friend.

Hi. I'm Dave.

Dave is 7 years old, and was bought for Jack by Nana, when Jack was a new baby. Dave didn't always look so ratty of course. He actually used to be plush at one time, but Jack and Ella are HARD on everything. And by HARD, I mean, I tend to kinda think of them as THE DESTRUCTORS. Remember that scene from Ghostbusters, when the Demon urges the ghostbuster guys to "CHOOSE, CHOOSE THE FORM OF THE DESTRUCTOR," and then the first thing that pops in their brains will be the orchestrator of their demise? Yeah, well if I were "Dr. Raymond Stantz," I imagine that the first thing that would pop into my head would be an image of JACK AND ELLA, instead of the marshmallow man, and they'd ROAR AND RIP AND CRASH their way through my house faster and mightier than they are now.

But I digress...

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Oh look! It's Baby Jack surrounded by stuffies! (does every parent take this pic?) There's Dave, in the left corner of the photie, looking very plush indeed

﻿ At first, Dave had no name. He was just one of many. But, when Jack started to talk, and talk well, this teddy bear became "BEAR" (whatever. The kid was a year old for crap's sake). Or, as Jack would say it; "BEH," because Nana used to babysit Jack while I went to work, and Jack quickly took on Nana's English accent. In fact, I still like to point out to Jack that there was a time he would say things like; "I have to go upstehs to find my BEH."

As Dave's...I mean Bear's importance grew, so too did his presence, and emerging personality. He soon became "Bear Buddy," and when he talked, for some reason, he sounded almost exactly like Bill Murray in Caddyshack. I have no idea why. Bear Buddy was a ton of fun. He was loud, and boisterous, loved to dance and sing off key.

In fact, Bear Buddy was so damn funny, that little Jack couldn't resist grabbing him, mid-joke, and crushing him to his face with love, and that I-can't-stand-it-you're-so-adorable kind of sentiment.

And then Jack discovered that, like every other toy in the house, Bear Buddy's face was particularly good for chewing. He'd get that snout in between his new teeth and "gnow, gnow, gnow!" away with enthusiasm.

Whattaya know--he eventually ate part of Bear's face clean off! So, I sewed him back up. And Jack chewed his face apart again. And I sewed it again. And he chewed it again. Eventually there was no nose left to salvage. Bear's face was wet and GRRROSS nearly all the time. If Bear got left in my bed, it would make that part of my bed wet. EEEEEEW!!!!! DISGUSTING!!! But I kept on washing him, sticking a needle and thread through his gross, crusty, slightly soggy face, and sewing that Bear back up again.

Because, Jack was not about to give him up.

(here's a secret: Bear smelled pretty gross for quite some time during those wet months--kind of like mouldering wood chips)

Jack's grandparents were revolted by the thing. They were horrified by all the chewing and sucking going on on Bear's face. GET RID OF IT, they urged us. As if. They even tried to buy substitutions: "look Jack," they'd chirp, "this is your NEW Bear Buddy." Yeah, they've tried to replace Elvis too, and we all know how that's worked out. Some fat guy with mutton chops does not an Elvis make.

Bear's face was quite a state though. Eventually I had to sacrifice a pair of black cotton undergitch, so I could cut circles out to craft up a new nose for Bear. Am I a freaking genius or what?!?

why nap on your "big boy bed" when you can climb behind with your buddies?

Bear had to go wherever Jack went. If Jack was going on a road trip, so too was Bear Buddy. Bedtime had to include Bear.

Bear had to come on vacation as well. In fact, forgetting Bear was never a freaking option. One time Jack left Bear behind an hour away from home after a family visit. The Man hopped into his car and made the drive just to get that Bear.

Look, he's even in the family photo

there's Jack, and that same cousin from the crib, and of course, Dave. I think he was Dave by this point at least.

Eventually Jack started getting interested in music. It all started with The Beatles. He was a SUPER FAN of the Beatles. Then it was The Rolling Stones. And then it was every other British Invasion band. Bear Buddy was no longer Bear Buddy. He was Dave now. Also, Dave no longer sounded like Bill Murray from Caddyshack. Jack informed me one day that "Dave's voice has evolved." Dave had a new voice--no longer provided by me, but by Jack instead. Dave enjoyed the electric guitar, and playing in bands. He went to Bear school on the weekends, and he often tattled on Jack as much as Jack tattled on him. Dave even gives Jack hell sometimes when Jack does something naughty.

Oh, and recently Jack has informed us that Dave is a Muslim. Christmas does not come to Dave's house, Jack told us.

Recently, we could NOT find Dave at bedtime. TRAGEDY! DISASTER! Oh my lord, I can't even describe the wailing, panicking, tears--the laments of "Now I'll NEVER find Dave! DAVE'S GONNA BE ALL ALONE! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!"

We hunted, and we searched. We looked under EVERYTHING. I was out in the back yard with a flashlight. I scanned through the back seats of our cars. Under the couches. Under my bed. All through Ella's room. The Kitchen. The pantry. The bathroom. It was a nightmare. Finally we found Dave: in Jack's room, under a towel.
Enormous SIGH OF RELIEF.

Dave is also Jack's most important member of the band. He is the Lennon to Jack's Mccartney. Or is it the other way around... If you've been checking out Jack's art in some of my posts, you'll notice that when Jack draws his band, it always has the same members: Jack, Dave, John (on bass guitar), and Roland the lion on drums.

John, Jack, Roland, Dave

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Dave, John, Roland

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Thankfully, Jack no longer chews Dave's face. It's a damn good thing too, because that bear was getting WHIFFY. Plus, I was running out of black cotton underwear.

And so there you have it. Dave, the irreplaceable. For god's sake, DON'T LOSE HIM.

we have the lovie stuffies at our house too,there would be major panic if we lost bunny!gabe has puppy and blue cow,they are both 8 years old and look a bit dirty and ratty, even after a good tumble in the wash.kieran has bunny,a bunny head with a small blanket attached. when i saw how much she liked it i bought 2 more so i could swap them out when they got dirty. even though my kids are not super creative{hence puppy ,blue cow and bunny]they are pretty smart.now we have bunny, bunny B and baby bunny, but only original bunny will do. sigh!

well, I was thinking...boy Karen, tell us you REALLY feel about (the other) Dave!! hahahahaBen has "teddy" well, really thi sspecial bear doesnt have a name..it changes with what he likes at the time...but HE CAN NOT sleep with out it!! and Coco, she doesnt have any special stuffies...yet...she owns a ton of them, but does not favor one over the other. She actually LOVES Bens bear

oh my gosh, brooke has a stuffie type doll that's all soft who she attached to when she was a little baby & we ended up buying 3 more just so we could wash them because she was a majorly pukey baby. she never ever, ever went anywhere without baby until i forced her at age 3 to leave it in her carseat when we went out. when she was 4, i forbid her to take it out of her room because whenever she held it, she wouldn't stop sucking her thumb. she'd go into a trance almost & just suck her thumb & rub goodbaby's thumb on her upper lip. she hates dolls of any kind now, but can't sleep at all without goodbaby (she was originally bed baby, but then when she discovered that there were 4 of them, she gave them each their own name, based on how much she liked their thumbs.). i'm so glad i broke her of dragging that baby around when she was still little because it was totally traumatic when it was misplaced or got extra dirty.great, now you've made me want to write a post about stupid goodbaby. poetry has even been written in her honor.

YES! You should do a post about Goodbaby! That sounds super cute. I missed this comment somehow...anyhoo, did Brooke like that she had multiples of the same doll? Jack lOVED collections of the same object (duplicates especially) when he was little

when she first discovered that there were multiples, it confused & flustered her. then, after a bit, she dug into the stash & started hoarding them. she didn't want to go anywhere or do anything without all 4 of them. that had to be forbidden because it was too much work for me, plus then there wasn't a fresh, clean one when it was needed.

oh yeah--I felt sympathetically stressed as soon as you wrote that Brooke had to go out with all four of them--like you'd just quadrupled your toy burden. Good for you for putting the kibosh on that right away!

Oh, I totally get this whole post! We have a "Nanny," my 5 yr old's BFF and irreplaceable ratty blankie. Recently we lost her in the house and it was pretty rough. Found her about a week later after frantic searches, including going through the entire gross garbage bin outside, just in case.Wrote about it last week:http://jesseesspot.blogspot.com/2011/04/last-but-certainly-least.htmlGlad you found Dave! :):)

Hi Jessica :) Thanks for reading, and welcome to my whining! I will check out your post tomorrow when I'm awake because I'm curious now as to where that blankie finally was. Yeah, I totally understand the HORROR when these things disappear. I feel sick and shaky even at the thought of Dave ever truly disappearing. Best not to even talk about it.